8134. 'The wilderness has shut them in' means that obscurity has taken hold of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'shutting them in' - when this refers to obscurity, meant by 'the wilderness' - as taking complete hold of them; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as obscurity of faith, dealt with in 7313.

7313. 'And let them serve Me in the wilderness' means worship in obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worship; and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as that which is uninhabited and uncultivated, dealt with in 2708, 3900, in the spiritual sense obscurity so far as the good and truth of faith are concerned. That kind of obscurity is meant here by 'the wilderness', in general because those who belong to the spiritual Church, who are represented by 'the children of Israel', are in obscurity so far as truths of faith are concerned, see 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3833, 4402, and in particular because they are in obscurity when they are emerging from a state of molestations and temptations. For those who are subjected to molestations are surrounded by falsities and buffeted by them like a reed by the wind, so that they swing from doubt to positive acceptance and from positive acceptance to doubt. Consequently when they first rise out of that state they are in obscurity; but then that obscurity is gradually lightened. Because this is what the state which those undergoing molestations is like, the children of Israel were brought into the wilderness, in order that they might represent the condition of those who belonged to the spiritual Church before the Lord's Coming, and also the condition of those who belong to that Church at the present day and undergo vastation of falsities.